


Aloha Wau Ia 'Oe (I Love You)

by StrikerDouchecanoe



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: 2x15, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Episode Tag, Episode: s02e15 Mai Ka Wa Kahiko (Out of the Past), First Kiss, Getting Together, M/M, Max to the rescue, canon compliant up until the end of 2x15, lieutenant sass ho kelly, superseal does actually have emotions, viva la mcdanno, you can't tell me chin and kono don't have cousin telepathy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-24
Updated: 2017-04-25
Packaged: 2018-10-23 09:41:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10716909
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StrikerDouchecanoe/pseuds/StrikerDouchecanoe
Summary: Steve's heart breaks when he hears the voicemail Danny left for Rachel. It breaks again when he watches Danny rush into Rachel's embrace at the storage unit.An AU/coda to 2x15 Mai Ka Wa Kahiko (Out Of The Past). Chin and Kono have conversations with a glance, Danny is oblivious, and our favorite SuperSeal does his best to hide any evidence of real human emotion behind what Danny affectionately calls Aneurysm Face.





	1. Chapter 1

Steve thought he felt like shit before Kono played him Danny's voicemail to Rachel. The stomach-churning combination of panic and white-hot fury was bad enough, but hearing Danny beg Rachel to take him back hurt like the worst beating Steve had ever taken in his life. He knew it showed on his face and in the wounded animal noise that escaped through his teeth, but thankfully neither Chin nor Kono commented on his reaction to the voicemail. Steve dropped a gear and accelerated, weaving in and out of traffic, and reflected momentarily that maybe he wasn't doing the best job keeping his fear under control.

 

Once the team got a location on Danny and Peterson, Steve felt marginally better. Now, at least, Five-0 could take action and his SEAL training would be useful. He found himself operating on autopilot nonetheless, years of training taking over while all his conscious thoughts focused on Danny and Grace. Panic was like water in his eyes and lungs, blurring the world around him beyond recognition and making it harder to breathe by the second. Chin Ho clapped a hand on Steve's shoulder as the team ran for their cars, squeezing before he let go. Steve tore out of HQ at a speed that nearly tipped his truck on its wheels, and the speedometer read just above a hundred and ten as he raced for Ala Moana Park, the rest of the team just behind him.

The relief at finding Danny alive and well was immediately swallowed by more panic when he realized Grace wasn't there, and he followed Danny to where Peterson was already handcuffed. Under any other circumstance, Steve would have smiled at Danny not hesitating to shoot a kidnapper for information, and the rest of the team would have chided Danny for "hanging out with McGarrett too much". As it was, Steve thought a gunshot to the leg was too lenient for the man who'd put Grace in danger. He entertained a fantasy of pulling out Peterson's teeth one by one for a brief moment, then settled for stepping on Peterson's bad leg with his full weight as he and Danny got in the car to retrieve Grace.

 

Danny was pale and shaking as they pulled up to the storage unit, and Steve silently thanked his combat training for giving him the ability to remain collected and be someone Danny could rely on. When they found Grace uninjured, the relief that flooded through Steve was forceful enough to send him to his knees on the floor of the storage compartment, turning his head away from Grace and Danny to hide the tears springing into his eyes. Steve followed as Danny carried Grace outside and stopped short when they ran into Rachel's waiting arms. Once, while he was deployed with the SEALs, Steve had taken four successive shots to the chest during a raid. The bulletproof armor he wore under his fatigues had stopped the bullets from actually entering his chest cavity, but the force of being hit with four high-caliber rounds had been enough to crack three ribs, severely bruise his sternum, and knock the breath out of him for what felt like hours. Looking at the way Danny buried his face in his ex-wife's neck, Steve thought four rounds to the chest sounded like a minor inconvenience in comparison. He didn't miss the look that passed between Kono and Chin Ho, but he was too exhausted to try and decipher it. Danny rode back with Rachel and Grace to pick up Stan from the emergency room, and Steve drove the Camaro back to Ala Moana alone to retrieve his truck. 

 

Steve managed to deal with the hollow feeling until he was home, safely parked in his own driveway. He got out of the truck, feeling drained and numb and vaguely like he was drowning, and walked inside and upstairs to his bathroom, intending to take a shower. Staring into the mirror, he remembered the way Danny had brushed past him to hug Rachel and the desperation in Danny's voice on Rachel's answering machine, and the pain of realizing how badly he'd been misreading his partner for the last few weeks was suddenly too much. Steve clenched his right hand into a fist and swung at the mirror as hard as he could. The glass cracked around where his fist had landed, and Steve found himself unable to stop swinging until the mirror was shattered--and by the way his hands felt, so were some of his knuckles. Abandoning the shower idea, he wandered downstairs and opened the whiskey he kept above the fridge.

 

Back at HQ, Chin and Kono stood in the main room conversing in hushed tones. 

"This is about what happened back at the storage unit, isn't it," Kono said. "About McGarrett."

Chin nodded. "I let his reaction to the voicemail go because the case had to be our priority at the time, but Kono… Something's up with him and Danny."

"Do you think Danny has any idea?" 

"Any idea about what?" Lori asked, coming to stand next to the cousins. Chin and Kono exchanged a look, and Lori's mouth fell into a silent  _ ahhh. _ "Any idea that McGarrett's in love with him?" she followed up. "I don't know, guys."

"I forgot you were a profiler," Chin said, smiling at their newest team member. Lori nodded.

"I knew about that torch McGarrett's carrying around inside of my first week," she said. "It's hard to get a read on Danny, though."

"It's a pretty big torch," Kono commented. "No wonder the boss has such great legs." Her comment earned a snort from both of her teammates before the conversation turned serious again. 

"Steve was gutted by that voicemail," Chin told the other two. "He looked like he'd been shot."

"The way he looked at the storage unit, too," Lori said. "He didn't even look like that when we found him after he'd been tortured by Wo Fat in North Korea. I've never seen him look like that."

"Cuz, you should go check on him," Kono said. "We'll handle Danny."

"Should we give him some time with his family before we drop this on him?" Lori asked. Kono leveled her with a look to rival what Danny affectionately called McGarrett's Aneurysm Face.

"Right, of course, we're Five-0, we shoot first and ask questions later," Lori conceded. "Let's go."

 

After his seventh or eighth shot of whiskey, Steve felt the pain in his hands beginning to dull. Granted, the rest of his senses felt dull too, but the alcohol was creating a barrier between Steve and the pain he'd been feeling--both physical and emotional--and this kind of numbness was a welcome break from the hollow gutted nausea he'd felt earlier. Somewhere between shots four and five, he'd thrown his phone at the wall hard enough to leave a dent in the wall and shatter the screen. He threw back another gulp of whiskey and frowned at the near-empty bottle. It hadn't been all the way full when he started, but he wasn't gone enough to have forgotten feeling like his heart had been ripped out. Steve shrugged to himself and downed what was left, finishing off the bottle just as someone knocked on his door. 

"Coming!" Steve slurred loudly. As soon as he moved from his spot leaning on the counter, though, he realized the floor was rippling under his feet and he promptly fell down, the empty bottle in his hand breaking on the counter with a loud crash as he fell. Looking up from the kitchen floor, Steve faintly registered stinging in his arm and back, but he didn't think he could remember how to stand, much less check for injuries.

He heard the front door open, and for a long, terrifying moment he thought of Wo Fat and his henchmen, here to finish what they'd started--until Chin Ho Kelly's face came into view above him.

 

When McGarrett didn't open the door, Chin tried the handle and found it unlocked. Shaking his head at his boss's apparent nonchalance about home security, he stepped inside and found Steve laying on the kitchen floor in the remains of a whiskey bottle, blood covering his hands and arms. 

"Chin!!" Steve slurred delightedly.

"Come on, let's get you up," Chin said, grabbing his boss under the arms and hauling him to his feet. Steve made a vaguely pained noise as he stood, and Chin noticed three shards of glass sticking out of McGarrett's arm and shoulder from where he'd fallen into the remains of the whiskey bottle. With a sigh, he half-dragged Steve upstairs and sat him down on the bed before dialing Max's number.

 

Max showed up at the McGarrett house with enough medical supplies to outfit a small hospital and set about cleaning the gashes from the broken bottle and the mirror. Several of the cuts needed sutures, which Steve whined about for the entire time Max was cleaning him up. 

"What happened to your bathroom mirror, boss?" Chin asked, emerging from downstairs with a broom and dustpan. 

"Judging by the lacerations on his hands and the considerably heavy contusions surrounding his knuckles, my educated guess is that Commander McGarrett repeatedly punched his bathroom mirror until it shattered," Max answered, tying off the last line of sutures and opening up a package of gauze squares.

"Steve, why were you punching the mirror?" Chin asked, sitting down on the bed next to his boss. "And why are you so drunk you can hardly stand? I didn't think Navy SEALs got wasted."

"'S from the stuff," Steve mumbled. "Whiskey."

"I know how you got drunk," Chin shot back. "I'm asking why you punched out your hands and drank two-thirds of a bottle of whiskey." 

Steve sighed defeatedly. "Danno," he murmured, staring down at his bruised and bloodied hands. "'S always...been Danno, Chin. He loves Rachel."

"He dropped everything to sneak into North Korea and bring you home," Chin pointed out quietly. 

"Yeah, but so did you… 'n Kono 'n Lori, y'know?"

"None of us have a child to think about," Chin countered. "Danny went into North Korea knowing he might die there and leave Grace without a father, and finding you was worth that risk to him."

"He loves Rachel," Steve slurred, shaking his head unsteadily. "He just… like I wasn't even there."

"Commander, you are all bandaged up," Max announced, sitting back and beginning to clean up the room.

"Mahalo, Max," Chin said, ignoring Steve's feeble mumble of "Danno". "I'm gonna stay the night and make sure he doesn't get into any more trouble."

"Should I notify Detective Williams?" Max asked as he stood up.

"Definitely not tonight," Chin said. "These two are going to have a nice long talk when McGarrett's sober."

Max nodded and left the room, leaving Chin alone with a now-snoring McGarrett.

 

When Steve woke up the next morning, the first thing he noticed was pain--in his head, in his hands, on his back--and the distinctly foul taste of a hangover in his mouth. He grimaced as he sat up, noting the trashcan at his bedside and suppressing a shudder. He hadn't gotten that drunk in a very, very long time. 

After brushing his teeth and struggling into a clean shirt, Steve stumbled down the stairs and into the kitchen to find none other than Chin Ho Kelly sweeping up the remains of a whiskey bottle.

"Howzit, boss?" Chin greeted him loudly, grinning as he tossed the last glass shards into the recycling.

"Head, Chin," Steve griped as he fumbled for a coffee mug in the cabinet.

"I didn't think Navy SEALs got wasted," Chin said, clapping Steve on the uninjured side of his back.

"I don't, normally," Steve grumbled, pouring a cup of coffee and drinking it straight from the mug. "What time is it?"

"Ten-fifteen," Chin answered. "No calls from work today, lucky for you."

"Ten-fifteen," Steve muttered dumbly, making a face at the bitterness of his coffee.

"Take it easy today, boss," Chin advised, grabbing his car keys off the counter and making for the door. "Oh, and Danny's coming by this afternoon to talk to you."

"What?" Steve exclaimed, the hangover fog quickly receding as fragments of his drunken ramblings returned to him. "Talk about what, Chin?"

"Shoots, boss," Chin said with a smile as he closed McGarrett's front door behind him. 

Steve sighed loudly to his empty living room. 


	2. Chapter 2

With Chin gone, Steve set about repairing the damages caused by his uncharacteristic emotional outburst the night before. Chin had swept up all the broken glass in both the kitchen and the bathroom, but the house was still covered in bloodstains. 

After he'd gotten the blood out of his floors, popped some Tylenol, and downed another cup of coffee without bothering to put milk or butter in it, Steve set off for downtown Honolulu.

Three hours later Steve had gotten his hands x-rayed, bought and activated a new phone, and made a stop at the Honolulu Home Depot for a replacement bathroom mirror. The doctor at the urgent care center had said Steve was unbelievably lucky not to have shattered his knuckles, although he'd sustained severe bone bruising and wouldn't regain full grip strength for at least two weeks. 

Steve tried to bury his embarrassment at the previous night's events as he installed the new mirror in the upstairs bathroom. He couldn't think of the last time he'd had an outburst like that--usually he just went for a run or a swim until physical exhaustion took over and dulled the emotional weight on his shoulders. Last night, though, had been nothing short of an unmitigated disaster. He was faintly glad he'd shattered his phone, since the damage meant he couldn't have placed any drunken calls to a certain detective.

The sound of Steve's newly activated cell phone ringing snapped him out of his musings.

"McGarrett," he answered.

"What the  _ hell  _ is the matter with you?" The fury in Danny's voice barely concealed something that sounded a lot like relief. "You slink off by yourself after a  _ kidnapping  _ case and you don't answer your phone?"

"Danny, I'm sorry," Steve started before his partner cut him off.

"You're sorry? No, Steven, you are a hot-headed dumbass who doesn't answer his phone when the people he loves are worried about him! What if Wo Fat had caught up to you, huh? Or the Yakuza? Or one of the hundreds of other enemies you've managed to make for yourself on this stupid fucking rock?"

"You done, Danno?" Steve asked when Danny stopped to breathe.

"Do not  _ Danno  _ me right now. And yeah, I'm done."

"I was gonna ask you to come over so we could talk," Steve said. "I had a rough night and my old phone broke, that's why I didn't answer."

"Your phone broke."

"Yes, Daniel, my phone broke."

"That's interesting, because I talked to Max this morning and he says you threw it through your living room wall."

"It didn't go through the wall," Steve shot back.

"Oh, so you did throw your phone at the wall?"

"I'm hanging up now," Steve threatened.

"Good, because I'm at your front door," Danny retorted, hanging up before Steve could get another word in. 

 

"Again, Steven, I will ask,  _ what the hell is the matter with you?"  _ Danny was barely through the front door when the lecturing began.

"What the hell is the matter with  _ me? _ Daniel, you do not just walk into a person's home--without bothering to knock, I might add--and start screaming at them!"

"You are covered in bandages, you have not been answering your phone, and Chin tells me you were too drunk to stand last night!"

"You worried about me, Danno?" Steve asked, a smirk pulling at the corner of his mouth.

"Was I--of course I was worried, you  _ absolute jackass." _

Steve sighed and nodded, letting his teasing facade fall away. "Sorry I scared you, Danny," he said. "Like I said earlier, it was a rough night."

Danny shook his head, stepping closer to examine the bandages across Steve's knuckles. "Steven,  _ I  _ had a rough night.  _ You  _ completely lost it."

"Yeah, well, you have Rachel." Steve turned away to wash the already-clean coffee maker.

"I have Rachel? What is that supposed to mean?"

"Figure it out, Detective," Steve shot back, rinsing the coffee pot with quite a bit more force than absolutely necessary.

"Hold on, hold on, let me get this straight. You, Mr. Badass Navy Killing Machine. Have you been  _ pining?" _

"Pining?!" Steve spun around from the sink, grimacing.

"Oh, now you have Aneurysm Face. He has Aneurysm Face," Danny griped, throwing his hands up.

"I do not have  _ Aneurysm Face!"  _

"Steven Jack McGarrett, I am going to ask you a question and I am only going to ask it once, so you listen to me and you think about your answer," Danny said, taking a deep breath and shoving his hands in his pockets. 

"What, you're full-naming me now, Danno?"

"Are you ready to listen?" Danny countered, raising his eyebrows.

"Okay." Steve crossed his arms and leaned back against the counter.

"Is there something you want to tell me?" Danny asked quietly. Steve sighed and dragged a hand down his face.

"There's a lot I want to tell you, alright?" Steve admitted. 

"Okay, like what?" Danny's stern tone had all but fallen away as he moved to stand in front of Steve.

"When I saw your face at the back of that truck in North Korea," Steve started. "I've never been so relieved to see anyone, okay?" 

Danny nodded. "The feeling was mutual, babe," he said.

Steve took a deep breath and stared down at his bandaged hands as he continued. "In my time at Five-0 alone, I've been shot, stabbed, tortured, broken bones, the whole nine yards," he said.

"I know. It gives me a fucking heart attack every single time," Danny interjected.

"When I was active duty, I got injured a lot worse than I have here," Steve continued. "And Danny, I have to be honest with you, none of that hurt like watching you beg Rachel to take you back. I mean,  _ Rachel,  _ Danno. Since I've known you she's done nothing but fuck around with your head and try to ruin your relationship with Grace. It kills me to watch you putting all this energy and love into a person who's never, ever gonna treat you right, okay? Last night I couldn't handle it."

"So you drank a handle of whiskey by yourself," Danny retorted.

"Yeah, I did," Steve said, nodding at the ground. "I almost lost two people I love more than anything yesterday, Daniel, it was a little traumatizing."

"You could have called me," Danny said, smoothing his palm over McGarrett's back in a nearly unconscious gesture of comfort.

"No, I couldn't have," Steve said. "You were with Grace and Rachel. You needed to be with your family after something like that."

"You are my family, you enormous moron," Danny said, shaking his head. "C'mere." He opened his arms and pulled Steve into a bone-crushing hug. "And if you must know," he added, "Rachel started things with us, and I let her do it because I thought this infuriating asshole I work with was in love with a Navy Lieutenant, and I hoped fooling around with my ex-wife would be enough to distract me from that, okay?"

Steve's grip on Danny tightened. "Catherine's a great friend," he admitted. "She realized it wasn't going anywhere a while ago, though. I'm, uh… I'm in love with this stubborn hothead colleague of mine, and she realized it before I did."

"I am not a hothead," Danny muttered into Steve's t-shirt. 

Steve pulled back enough to look his partner in the eye, a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. "Love you, Danno," he said, bandaged hands resting on Danny's shoulders.

"I love you too, you big goof," Danny grinned, brushing his thumb along the stubble at Steve's jaw. "Are you gonna kiss me, or do I have to do the full name thing again?"

Steve answered by fitting his mouth to Danny's, tangling his fingers in Danny's hair and pulling him close. Danny was quick to reciprocate, winding his arms around the taller man and swiping his tongue across Steve's lower lip. Steve let out the tiniest hint of a whimper against his partner's mouth, and Danny pulled back just enough to beam at Steve. 

"Shut up," Steve warned, no heat behind the threat.

"I am never letting you live that one down, you know that?" Danny said. "You just whimpered, Super SEAL."

"You keep harassing me about it and you're not gonna get kissed again," Steve said, a genuine smile lighting up his battle-worn face. 

Danny stretched up onto his toes and kissed Steve by way of response.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's part 2, y'all! I'm gonna keep this one to 2 chapters since I'm now into season 3 and 750 more gay things have happened since 2x15 and they all deserve their own AU's, let's be honest. Also, I'm not necessarily anti-Rachel, but she's been a real ass to Danny and let's not romanticize that when Danny does actually have healthy relationships in his life, yknow?
> 
> Also, not to promo my own insta account or whatever, but I'm currently doing a portrait of McGarrett on instagram over at @jordandrawsthings and I'm planning to draw the whole team, so have a look if you've got time!


End file.
